BLOOD-and-thunder challenges, a pitch looking like it had just hosted a weekend rock festival and a referee willing to allow players to get on with it.

All that was needed was the noise of a rattle and a Bay City Rollers scarf.

This was the nearest thing to football in the seventies since... well, football in the seventies.

The players may sport rather more in the way of woollen knitted wear on their hands these days, and their orange or yellow boots may not have been caked in quite so much mud, but you get the picture.

"I used to love playing in conditions like that," mused Villa assistant John Robertson - one of the game's great wingers - as he puffed on his cigarette half-an-hour after the game.

"So did I," agreed his former teammate Martin O'Neill. "The pitches back then would control the ball for you."

So not a game for the purists, but an away victory of great significance for O'Neill's side - their fourth on the road this season - which kept them breathing down the necks of not just the top six but those bigger boys with rather loftier aspirations than Villa are supposed to be aspiring to.

It was a first win in six to end a frustrating run of three draws. It was also Villa's first ever league win, at the fifth attempt, over the Latics.

Steve Bruce used to make it a habit of embarrassing Villa but not these days. Gabby Agbonlahor has got his number.

The striker had given Bruce - barracked all afternoon by a noisy away end numbering 5,000 - a bad Sunday in November with a late headed winner in the derby at St Andrew's.

Here he was, seven weeks later, with a headed winner, the 18th of his Villa career and seventh of a remarkable season, which ended a six-game goal drought.

It capped a magnificent personal performance by the young England striker, who ran and ran all afternoon. Little wonder that those bigger clubs are said to be casting envious eyes in his direction.

Without Agbonlahor's eye for converting difficult chances, and the immense Gareth Barry who ran the show behind him, Villa would have done well to escape with a point.

They were, in truth, woeful for most of the first half and gifted the opposition a goal just like they did at Sunderland, before that intoxicating Boxing Day draw at Chelsea, which seemed to sap their energy.

But Villa were to overcome the gale-force wind, driving rain and the loss, after only 11 minutes, of influential target man John Carew.

They have now lost only once on their travels in the past 15 games, a sequence dating back to February when Ashley Young missed two headed sitters at Reading.

"It took us some time to come down from the exploits at Stamford Bridge," admitted a relieved O'Neill. "And to adjust to the conditions. We didn't cause Wigan too many problems in the first half and I thought they did us, especially from set-pieces.

"We really just had to readjust to the game and get a bit of bite into it and we achieved that in the second half.

"We've been beaten once away now since February and I'm delighted with that."

Wigan have taken monumental strides of their own since Bruce took charge, taking seven points from nine and outplaying Villa before the break.

Villa survived a scare when Marcus Bent rose to head down for Ryan Taylor, whose fierce shot struck Olof Mellberg and ballooned over the crossbar.

But they were ahead when the impressive Taylor sent over the resulting corner on to the head of the unmarked Titus Bramble, whose goal was his first in three seasons. Poor him that the stadium announcer handed it to Bent.

Wigan missed a number of decent opportunities to increase their lead and in reply Villa offered little other than a long-range Shaun Maloney shot which at least drew a save from Chris Kirkland. Maloney also saw a free-kick sail over the crossbar.

But Villa's dressing room is now bristling with confidence and nine minutes after the re-start they were level.

Barry's right-wing corner was inch-perfect and presented just the perfect post-Christmas gift for Curtis Davies, starting his first Premier League game and only his 16th of 2007, to power home a header.

Agbonlahor won it with a fine dart to the near post and a header which converted Young's cross on a rare occasion when the winger didn't fall to the ground looking for a free-kick.

Young tigerishly worked his way to the byline, past Antonio Valencia and Mario Melchiot, with Wigan's defence still appealing for an offside in the build-up.